by J. Randal Matheny

A few weeks ago, Daytimers, always attentive to saving time, sent out this not-so-hard-to-believe tax trivia:

MUNCH, MUNCH: Taxes gobble up 38.2% of the average family's income. That's more than the amount for food, clothing and shelter ... combined!

TIMBER! Nearly 300,000 trees are chopped down annually to produce the paper needed to print the IRS's mountains of forms and instructions.

ASTRONOMICAL! The IRS sends out 8 billion pages of forms and instructions every year. Lay them end-to-end and they'd encircle the earth 28 times. That's a 672,000-mile highway of confusion!

THE ART OF, UH, SIMPLIFICATION? The Gettysburg address has 269 words; the Declaration of Independence, 1,337 words; the Bible, 773,000. However, U.S. tax law has ballooned from a relatively "slender" 11,400 words in 1913, to a seam-busting 7 million words today!

DRIVEN TO COMPLY: American taxpayers spend over $200 billion and over 5.3 billion hours to comply with federal taxes each year. That's more than it takes to produce every car, truck, and van in the United States. SURPRISED? 60% of taxpayers must hire a professional to complete their return.

So how does doing your taxes stack up to saving your soul? I pulled out the manual.

PERCENTAGES. If taxes take 38.2% of the average income, the Lord requires all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength (Matthew 22:37). Though you MIGHT get a refund from the IRS, God brings you a return equal to and beyond the measure you use (Luke 6:38).

TIMBER. If 300,000 trees are converted every year to IRS forms and instructions, God did his work with only one, hewn in the form of a cross, good for all time.

SIMPLICITY. The seven million words of today's tax law will increase next year. And the next. And the next. The gospel of God has stayed the same for 2000 years and won't change until the end of time. Anybody can read and understand it.

COMPLIANCE. You make all that effort and hire a tax-preparer, and the IRS can still get you on a technicality, if they want. For the soul, all diligence is required (2 Peter 1:10; 3:14), but we can be assured of pleasing the Lord in all things (Colossians 1:10; 1 Thessalonians 4:1; 1 John 3.22).

DOUBLE-SPEAK. IRS talks about our "contributions," when, in reality, we pay taxes. God calls each thing as it is. Sin is transgression of his law (1 John 3:4). Salvation is pulling man out of his self-made condemnation (Romans 3:23; 6.23).

ENRICHMENT. Our hard-earned monies go into government coffers. God's treasures descend from heaven to enrich our spirits (2 Corinthians 9:8-11) and enable us to make free, generous, and voluntary contributions to help our neighbor and further the progress of the gospel.

We pay taxes because the Lord commands us to submit ourselves to the government, which serves as his agent in this world to preserve peace (Romans 13:1ff).

We save our souls because God gave the greatest gift of his Son to die in our stead.

So do your taxes. And save your soul.

For Mark Twain was wrong. Death and taxes will one day cease.

So the eternal soul deserves our full atention.

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